Frank’s Tree

Last summer, when I was SUPER pregnant, we decided to completely re-do our landscaping.  Thankfully, I still had a job, so we could afford to hire someone to do the actual work!  The project was slow-going, as those things tend to be, so we were still filling out the plants when Frank was born.  My parents offered to buy us a tree for the corner of the backyard as a “birth-day” present for Frank.  We chose a Dogwood tree, because it reminds me of Little Rock.  We planted it too late in the summer to get any blooms last year, and so last week we started seeing its first white flowers!  Thought you guys might like to see Frank in front of his very own tree!

Oh wait, wait, wait!!  Don’t eat the mulch, Frank.  Ugh, I hereby step down as Mother of the Year.  Nevermind, I already had to do that on Saturday when I left Frank on my bed, only to have him lunge off of it chin-first into the nightstand.  No worries, he’s fine…

A blogging machine, I am

Ok, I know I’ve already posted once today, but something momentous has occurred since the last post.  Oprah would call it something ridiculous like an “A-ha Moment!”  I love when Frank has such a moment.  Past examples include when he first realized sleeping was a positive thing and when he realized he could manipulate his limbs to acquire objects.  You can actually see the moment that something *clicks* in his brain.  Well, a few minutes ago, he and the sippy cup finally had their “A-ha Moment!” 

You see, Heath and I were always good about feeding Frank with a bottle at least once a week since he was about 6 weeks old.  “Were” is the operative word.  After the holidays, we were a lot more lax about bottle feeding, as it was a lot easier and faster to just do it the old fashioned way.  Anyway, sometime in late February, we tried to give him a bottle and it was as if he had never seen the thing before.  Aaacckk!  Anyhoo, upon advice from the pediatrician and our friends, we ditched the bottle in favor of the sippy cup.  Except, until today, Frank thought the sippy cup was nothing more than a chew toy, hat, shotput, etc.  After many attempts and even a few nights of going to bed without milk, it finally *clicked* today.  I even grabbed the camera to capture an image of him drinking from the first…er…man-made product in 3 months!

Also, I happened to snap a picture of our resident yogi in his favorite new position, the Downward Facing Dog:

“Daddy went to Las Vegas, and all he brought me was this enormous and tacky fuzzy die!”

Long time, no blog…

Hello!  It has been way too long since I posted anything to the blog.  I apologize to my fans…all three of you.  We have been all kinds of busy…we made another trip to Little Rock last weekend to visit family and some old friends.  This time, Frank was not sick (hooray!), so he had a great time with Gammie and Papa.  He is beginning to wave hello and goodbye, plus he will try to repeat some words.  While in Little Rock, he really perfected saying “Papa.”  Well, it’s more like “pop pop pop pop,” but it’s super cute! 

He is also still working on crawling.  He can make it all around the house backwards, but forward progress has thus far escaped him!  Oh well, it will happen soon enough!

Yesterday, the weather in Dallas was beyond spring-like; it was summery!  We went to the Arboretum with “Aunt” Kallie and her kids.  Kate and Will are on spring break this week, and Kallie was able to take off work yesterday to hang out with them.  We had fun playing “stay at home mom” together!  I wish she was around everyday!  Anyway, we went to the Arboretum along with every other child on spring break in the DFW metroplex!  Despite the fact that Frank was pretty tired and it was pushing 90 degrees, we actually got some pretty cute pics of the kids with the flowers.

 

 

Rough times…

For the past week or so, Frank has been sick.  It started out as a cough and quickly turned into a full-blown cold.  Unbeknownst to us, until we finally went to the doctor on Friday, the cold led to his first ear infection.  Oh, and did I mention, he cut a tooth on Saturday and has another one on the way?  Needless to say, these are not the best of times for the Dixons! 

However, Frank has been so strong and brave during what must be a confusing and painful week.  He has been sleeping like a champ — taking as many as 4 naps a day plus sleeping through the night — and takes his medicine without grimacing.  He is starting to get his appetite back, after a few days of disinterest in solid foods.  Anyway, I hope we are on the upswing now!

Last week, Frank and I made a short trip to Little Rock to visit our BFFs, the Bleils, and of course my family.  Despite his cold, Frank had a great time with his girlfriend Anna and his cousins.  I snapped a couple of pictures of his playdates.

"I'm thinking a small-ish ceremony on the beach. Just family and maybe Elmo and Prairie Dawn."

"I will look to you to warn me about all the crazies in the family."